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Criminal charge dropped against Ayer sex offender

By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com

Updated:
01/09/2013 06:36:10 AM EST

LOWELL -- In the aftermath of a federal judge's ruling allowing convicted sex offender John King to live on Whitcomb Avenue in Ayer despite the town's new sex -offender bylaw, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office has dropped a criminal charge against him.

In a Dec. 18 decision, U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young's ordered that King, his wife and infant, who all live in Harvard, be allowed to "immediately reside at 6 Whitcomb Ave., in Ayer," a property owned by King's in-laws.

Now that King is legally allowed to live and register as a sex offender in Ayer, as he tried to do, prosecutors on Jan. 4 dropped a charge against King of failure to register as a sex offender -- subsequent offense, according to the court docket.

John and Ashley King filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in May against the town of Ayer and Ayer police Chief William Murray, asking a federal judge to strike down Ayer's sex offender residency bylaw as unconstitutional.

The couple also sought relief against Ayer police after John King was arrested by Ayer police on May 15 police for residing at the Whitcomb Avenue house. The couple was forced to move to Harvard to live with Ashley King's parents.

Young didn't address the constitutionality of Ayer's sex-offender bylaw, but he wrote that King attempted to register as a sex offender in Ayer on April 19.

In the fall of 2011, Ayer passed a local bylaw restricting the areas in town where registered Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders could live.

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King, who according to the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry was convicted of rape and indecent assault and battery on a person older than 14 in March 2001, wanted to live on Whitcomb Avenue, which is a restricted area.

But Young wrote that the town had not yet posted the bylaw as of April 19, so it was not yet effective. "The court finds that Mr. King was effectively registered as a resident of 6 Whitcomb Ave. on April 19, prior to the enactment of the law."

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